Wild Creatures
by smaragdbird
Summary: Summers in Romania meant sunshine and warmth, they meant dry grass and fire Pre-slash, character death , Prequel to "Renaissance of a dream"


Summers in Romania are different than summers in England. First and foremost they have nearly perpetually good weather; sunshine, clear skies, warm temperatures. It's also a much more dangerous time because everything is dry and the tiniest spark can set off a huge fire but that's why the training to become a dragon tamer is nearly as tough and demanding as becoming an Auror.

Summer is Charlie's favourite season. He likes the warmth and the sunshine and the clear night skies where every star seems to be a diamond on a dark blue velvet cushion instead of the gas balls they are in reality.

This summer also meant staying outside during the night a lot, because Mond likes it and they chase each other around in a giant, abandoned valley, like kids, careless and free.

The grass is hard and dry under his naked feet, nearly gone brown completely with the lack of water. Nothing grows in this valley that isn't sturdy enough to endure the dragons just like the people who live here. They keep the fire-proof charms over the valley but making it rain would upset the local eco-system too much.

Summer brings the usual outbreaks of sunburn with it and at first Mond looked nearly as badly burned as Charlie but now his skin begins to darken under the perpetually sunny sky. He has been here three months now and adjusted reasonably enough to living with them in close quarters. Still, more often than not, his bed in their room is empty and in the morning Mond comes in, smelling like fire and dragons.

Summer also means that the young dragons are hatched. They control how many and which dragons breed, so it's usually only two or three altogether but even though he has been here for more than ten years, the sight of a dragon egg breaking open still catches Charlie's breath.

It happens on a late afternoon, Charlie remembers that with frightening clarity even years later. It's his turn to make dinner this week together with Kirill, who's a quite decent cook and has Charlie slicing vegetables in order to keep him occupied but far away from actual cooking at the same time.

The explosion is strong enough to shake the house and throw Charlie and Kirill to the ground. Bits of clay are falling from the ceiling. Kirill curses in Russian and Charlie can see blood running down his face. The others are shouting outside. Charlie wants to walk out as well but his left leg falters underneath him as soon as he takes a step.

He swears violently as Kirill hauls him up, putting his arms around Charlie to keep him upright and off of his leg.

It's hot outside, that's the first thing Charlie notices, too hot even for a Romanian summer afternoon.

"Kirill! Charlie!" Merjem waves at them or rather, Charlie notices, waves them away from the house. He turns his head towards the stables and forgets to breathe.

The western half of the house is surrounded by fire. The others are luring the dragons away from the fire and Charlie's hand tenses up when he counts only eight including Kirill and Merjem. He hears Kirill's gasp and knows that he has come to the same conclusion.

"Merjem!" He calls, "Where are Nikola and Mond?"

She looks at him, grimly pressing her lips together and shakes her head. Kirill lets go of him, running towards the burning building only to be stopped by Merjem and Charlie's injured leg can't support him so he falls to his knees.

Mond, he thinks, Nikola.

They manage to extinguish the flames quite quickly. It's a good thing it was afternoon and not the middle of the night. The valley is so dry that it easily could have ended in a disaster.

One dragon stayed inside the burning building, probably the one who started the fire. It's one of the young ones, born a couple days before they found Mond in the stables. It's curled around something and snarls and bites when they try to approach it.

"What's wrong with it?" Aki asks. The young ones behaviour upsets the other dragons that are already on the edge because of the fire. This sort of behaviour is usually displayed when the dragon has laid eggs but it's the wrong time of the year and the dragon is too young.

"Everyone back away," Merjem calls and they all take steps back or in Charlie's case stay where they are.

The dragon snarls at them for a last time and its tail whips back and forth but it slowly lifts its wings. To Charlie's relief it's Mond who the dragon was hiding, covered in soot but definitely alive. That is until Charlie sees Mond's eyes: he doesn't see any of them. His eyes are wide, feral and his muscles tense, his whole body ready to attack whoever tries to reach for him. He doesn't seem to notice the long gash on his leg that colours the grass red. When Anna tries to walk towards him her hand outstretched, he bares his teeth and snarls at her, mimicking the dragon.

It's not unlike the time when they found Mond, this starved, ragged, feral creature who lashed out to anyone who came too close.

"Charlie," it's Altero, who's helping him up. "We need to get him away from her."

Charlie knows that but using magic will be difficult. Dragon skin is tough and since the dragon keeps moving hitting it instead of Mond will likely make it angrier.

"What do you want me to do?"

"You're closer to him. Maybe you can talk him into crawling away from the dragon."

"Okay," Charlie nods. He can at least try.

"Mond," he calls, careful not to be too loud and distress the dragon any further.

"Mond," he tries again. There's no reaction, no sign that he recognises Charlie or any of them. "Get me closer." He tells Altero who gives him a look that nearly says Are you kidding me?!

"Just a couple steps. I can take it from there."

"What the hell are you planning?"

"Get the others to distract the dragon. I need to snap him out of this." Charlie has some experience with that. Mond has reverted back before, not as badly as this, but when he feels cornered or anxious or some other kind of wrong from normal this happens. Like emotion-steered lycanthropy. Anna says her sister studies a Muggle science that explains why people behave the way they do. Sometimes Charlie thinks wizards could use that too.

He crouches down, makes himself as small as possible to not pose as a threat to the dragon and crawls closer. What he tries to do is dangerous and if he survives this Merjem will have his head for it but Charlie feels the not so unfamiliar excitement of recklessness rush through him.

Out of the corners of his eye he can see that the others have formed a semi-circle and try to use sleeping spells to take the dragon down, which takes longer but is less aggressive than stunning spells and more likely to work. Still, if it does, there's no guarantee that it won't crush Mond underneath her.

"Mond," Charlie says again and stretches out both hands to show that they're empty, then slowly, carefully moves forward until he can touch Mond's shoulder. Mond looks at him, eyes wide in panic and it's painfully obvious that he doesn't recognise Bill.

"Mond, it's me Bill." He speaks softly, calming like he did when they first found Mond in the stables. "Mond." Relief washes through him when Mond's fingers curl around his arm and he crawls away from the dragon with Bill. The others manage to lull her to sleep and when she crashes down Mond is distracted enough that Bill can pull out his wand and put a sleeping spell on him as well.

On the good days Mond behaves like the rest of them, human, able to communicate although he never speaks and is a part of their little family. On the bad days…today was a bad day. Not the worst Charlie has ever seen Mond but bad. Most of the bad days are triggered by violence or disturbance. A fistfight between Kirill and Aki, Mireille screaming in frustration, Charlie accidentally destroying kitchenware…and Mond regresses into a snarling, instinct-driven animal, hiding in the dragons' den.

They discussed sending him to a hospital once, which country wouldn't matter. But the good days outnumber the bad ones and as Merjem put it, he's theirs and none of them is exactly normal and well-adjusted, not in terms of wizard society, especially not now after the war. And so they decided to keep Mond, in good times and in bad.

Charlie takes care of him while the others start to rebuild the house and calm the dragons. Even under a sleeping spell Mond never sleeps fitfully. He twitches and throws himself from one side to the other and he makes pained noises in his throat but his lips are pressed together so much that they turn pale and bloodless.

That night they sleep on the grass under the star sprinkled sky. Charlie still watches Mond sleep, the spell was strong enough to keep him under until tomorrow morning.

Kirill is a dark outline against the horizon, blocking out the stars. Nikola hasn't made it.

"Do you think he will leave us?" Rong asks quietly. He sounds afraid. Charlie knows how he feels. He's afraid too. It will be hard enough without Nikola but if Kirill leaves them too…He doesn't want to think about it.

"I hope not", he whispers back. Next to him Mond stirs restlessly again.

"Why do you think she saved him?" Charlie asks Merjem. She's been here the longest, if anyone knows why then it's her.

But Merjem only shrugs. "The day I know what happens inside a dragon's head…" she trails off. "Get some sleep", she tells him.

Nikola, Mond spells into his hand. When Charlie woke up he was already awake, waiting for Charlie to wake up as well.

Charlie shakes his head. Mond immediately withdraws. It's like watching a shell close and Charlie knows that tomorrow morning he'll find Mond with the dragons again.

Suddenly fingers flit over Charlie's ankle where his trousers are still ripped from the explosion.

"I wasn't hurt", Charlie assures him but Mond looks at him sceptically.

"Okay, a bit but nothing Altero couldn't handle", Charlie admits and Mond's hand curls around his ankle with a protective expression on his face.

"Thanks", Charlie says and covers Mond's hand with his. "I'm glad you didn't die."

He shouldn't have said that because Mond looks like Charlie hurt him. He lets go of him and leaves, joining Mireille and Aki at the makeshift breakfast table. Usually meals are the liveliest time around the reserve but not today. They watch Kirill sitting far away on the ground but no one approaches him, no one calls him.

Nikola is the third to die since Charlie came to Romania.

It never gets easier.


End file.
